Where to stay in Los Angeles

The Redbury

What’s so special

If you want to be in the heart of Los Angeles, then the Redbury is ideal. It’s located next to the iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood, with the Dolby Theatre (the Oscar venue) a couple of blocks away. Universal Studios and the shopping hubs of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills are also easily accessible.

How they rate it

This is an “ideal pied à terre”, says Lucie Young in The Daily Telegraph. Each of the 57 flats is “beautifully equipped”, with everything you could need, including a washer/dryer. The decor is colourful: “Paisley wallpaper, rock ‘n’ roll posters, record players and an accompanying vinyl collection”.

The hotel’s ‘hosts’ (which in this context really means ‘butlers’) are available 24 hours a day and can arrange all sorts of services for you, including ordering groceries or “in-flat yoga”.

The menu

You can either cook for yourself, order a picnic basket, or have a chef come to your room and cook for you. Alternatively, Cleo restaurant on the ground floor serves Middle Eastern cuisine.

The cost

Avalon Hotel

What’s so special

If you are looking to indulge your Mad Men fantasies, then this 1950s retro hotel is the place to go to for your ‘Don Draper goes on holiday’ moment. It’s located just off the main road on West Olympic Boulevard.

How they rate it

“Old school stars such as Lucille Ball stayed here (and more recent actors too – it turned out Benedict Cumberbatch was one of our fellow guests) and I’m not surprised,” says Tom Gormer in Stylist. The hotel offers some tranquillity amid the “wild traffic and hectic pace” of Los Angeles.

The cost

The world’s best golf course?

If your local golf course isn’t providing you with enough of a challenge anymore, perhaps you need to take a trip to the Legend Golf Resort in South Africa’s Waterberg mountain range. There you’ll find ‘the Extreme 19th’.

This is the highest and longest par three hole in the world. It measures 391 yards, and you can only reach the tee by helicopter – it’s 400m up, located on the top of Hanglip Mountain. As Alex Richards points out in the Daily Mirror ,“it truly is quite stunning, but probably isn’t one for anyone who suffers from vertigo”.

“It takes almost 30 seconds for any tee shot to reach the Africa-shaped green below,” says Ted Thornhill in the Daily Mail. And you’d better not slice your tee shot – there are no cameras or GPS used to track the flight of the golf ball. Instead “a spotter is employed to try and locate where it lands”.

Padraig Harrington, the 2008 Open Champion, was the first person to make par on the hole, although others have managed it since – including American actor Morgan Freeman.

The main ‘Signature’ course (a par 72) is no pushover either – each of the 18 holes has been designed by a different golfing legend, including Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia. There is also a ten hole Tribute Course, which recreates some of the world’s best holes for you to play in one place.

Rooms at the resort, which also offers safari adventures, start from £124 per person, per night. Find out more at www.legendgolfsafari.com, or call 00 27 11 729 6700.